Small breakthrough in insulin production found

Potential treatment for those newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes could enable their bodies to continue producing the insulin they need, according to new research.

The study, which was funded by JDRF, has been trialed by a small team of researchers in California and Yale. 

They worked with 14 newly diagnosed people to see if they could harness cells from each individual’s own immune system to control the reaction that causes type 1 diabetes.

They collected blood from each person and then separated out a particular type of immune cell called a regulatory T cell, also known as T-reg.

The study is exciting as it shows there may be a promising new treatment to help people newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes on the near horizon

Significantly altered

The cells were then given the ideal environment to grow and divide within the laboratory and then each person was given back a high dose of their own cells.

Dr Jeffrey Bluestone, professor in metabolism and endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) who led the research team suggested that by using T-regs to ‘re-educate’ the immune system the treatment of type 1 diabetes could be significantly altered.

Karen Addington, chief executive of JDRF in the UK, and the country’s charity leader of the year, said: “As this was a safety study conducted in only 14 people, we’ve found out that the approach is safe, but we can’t yet know if this therapy will help people with type 1 diabetes maintain their own insulin production.

“The study is exciting as it shows there may be a promising new treatment to help people newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes on the near horizon. But it is important to stress that it is not yet clear if it will take away the burden of insulin injections just yet.”

JDRF is helping to fund the phase 2 clinical study that will follow up on these results and find out whether this therapy is effective at helping people with type 1 diabetes either by removing the need for insulin entirely or prolonging the so-called ‘honeymoon phase’ for as long as possible.

JDRF, the world’s leading type 1 diabetes research charity, believes a cure for people who have type 1 diabetes today will likely come from a combination of therapies like this (which help to fix the immune system fault that causes type 1 in the first place) and therapies that can give people new insulin producing cells to replace those already destroyed.